Hydrodynamic Entrance Length for Laminar Flow in Microchannels with Rectangular Cross Section

• Type: Article in International Scientific Journal
• Date: 2021

Authors

Germán Ferreira (Author) Other; Artur Sucena (Author) Other; Luís L. Ferrás (Author) Other; F. T. Pinho (Author) FEUP; Alexandre M. Afonso (Author) FEUP

Journal

The Journal is awaiting validation by the Administrative Services.

Title: FLUIDS

Vol. 127

Pages: 1-240

ISSN: 2311-5521

Indexing

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Other information

Authenticus ID: P-00V-7J0

DOI: 10.3390/fluids6070240

Abstract (EN): This work presents a detailed numerical investigation on the required development length (L=L/B) in laminar Newtonian fluid flow in microchannels with rectangular cross section and different aspect ratios (AR). The advent of new microfluidic technologies shifted the practical Reynolds numbers (Re) to the range of unitary (and even lower) orders of magnitude, i.e., creeping flow conditions. Therefore, accurate estimations of L at Re <= O(1) are important for microsystem design. At such low Reynolds numbers, in which inertial forces are less dominant than viscous forces, flow characteristics become necessarily different from those at the macroscale where Re is typically much larger. A judicious choice of mesh refinement and adequate numerical methods allowed obtaining accurate results and a general correlation for estimating L, valid in the ranges 0 <= Re <= 2000 and 0.1 <= AR <= 1, thus covering applications in both macro and microfluidics.

Language: English

Type (Professor's evaluation): Scientific

No. of pages: 13